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Teachers Don't Need Note for a Religious Day

A Brooklyn high school principal's order that teachers and staff members submit a personal letter from a clergyman when requesting a day off to observe a religious holiday was rescinded yesterday by the district superintendent. He called the principal's order a mistake.

On Sept. 4, Adele A. Vocel, the principal of Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School in Borough Park, Brooklyn, sent a memorandum to the school's faculty and staff saying that religious holiday requests were to be made a week in advance and ''must be accompanied by a personalized letter from the applicant's clergyman/clergywoman which states that the applicant, named in the letter, is required by the tenets of his/her faith, not to work on the specified holy day.''

The memo stated that the order was being put into place ''to assure consistency and to support the appropriate observance of all religious holy days by all members of the faculty and staff.'' Ms. Vocel did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Charles Majors, the superintendent for Brooklyn high schools, said in an interview yesterday that the order ''was a mistake, and it has been corrected.''

Mr. Majors said staff members would not have to submit a letter from a clergy member but would only have to request a religious holiday sufficiently in advance for the school to arrange for a substitute. He said he had instructed the principal to contact his office if she was unfamiliar with the religious holiday requested, or if she had any doubt.

An education official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that Ms. Vocel's order stemmed from the misinterpretation of an incident last spring involving a staff member who requested a holiday around Orthodox Easter. The official said Ms. Vocel was not familiar with the holiday, which occurs on a different date from the traditional Western observance of Easter, and asked the central administration for guidance. She was told that in cases involving an unfamiliar holiday, she could ask the employee for a letter from a clergyman, the official said. But the official said the directive was not meant to apply universally.

Schools will be closed for three days this month, Sept. 18, 19 and 27, to allow for the observance of the Jewish High Holy Days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, but Orthodox Jewish teachers usually request four other days off for the observance of two days of Sukkot and Shemini Atzereth and Simhath Torah, all in October.

The school system also schedules its winter recess to include Christmas and New Year's Day and its spring recess to coincide with Good Friday and Passover.